I also note that many of todays riders are super thin. That is relatively recent. In the 80's and before that riders were not fat but thicker and more normal looking. There were exceptions of course. Joop was pretty thin and Hampsten. Lemond and Hinault? Not so much. But then Hinault had the strong enough to slug protesters now and then. Could you imagine Andy Schleck getting in the face of a protester like that today?

Posted By Andy Eunson on 07/25/2014 12:43 PM
I also note that many of todays riders are super thin. That is relatively recent. In the 80's and before that riders were not fat but thicker and more normal looking. There were exceptions of course. Joop was pretty thin and Hampsten. Lemond and Hinault? Not so much. But then Hinault had the strong enough to slug protesters now and then. Could you imagine Andy Schleck getting in the face of a protester like that today?

I am thinking yo are thinking of north american riders? At the tour in 1988 I was paying particular attention to Euro pro riders vs. the american I saw at the 86 coors classic. the Euros were absolutely leaner and a lot leaner. They were shorter too. American teams that year (1986) were taller than the Euro riders. Of course the other thing was most of the Euro guys had no arms or chest muscles. American boys were lean but not as lean and many had upper body muscles that were a lot less skinny kid

Unfortunately, I think that the 3dubs will always be filled with people accusing good performances of being doped (maybe rightly so). The double sided sward there is that if you win, you are doped, but if you don't win, you are washed up, overpaid, overrated...damned either way.